Published phylogeny reconstructions of the palm family (Arecaceae) are based on plastid DNA sequences or restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs), nuclear DNA sequences, morphological characters or a combination thereof, and include between 33 and 90 palm species. The present study represents all previously recognized subfamilies, tribes and subtribes of palms and 161 of the 189 genera. The plastid DNA region mat K was sequenced for 178 palm species and ten commelinid monocot outgroup species, and was combined with new and previously published plastid DNA sequences of trn L-trn F, rps 16 intron and rbcL . The addition of mat K sequences and more taxa resulted in a highly resolved and largely well-supported phylogeny. Most importantly, critical basal nodes are now fully resolved and, in most cases, strongly supported. On the basis of this phylogeny, we have established a new subfamilial classification of the palms, in which five subfamilies are recognized, rather than the six that were included in the previous classification. The circumscriptions of the subfamilies Calamoideae and Nypoideae were corroborated. The phylogeny supported a new circumscription for the subfamily Coryphoideae, including all taxa previously recognized in Coryphoideae with the addition of the tribe Caryoteae, formerly of the subfamily Arecoideae. The phylogenetic analysis also supported a new delimitation for the subfamily Ceroxyloideae that contains the tribes Cyclospatheae and Ceroxyleae, and all genera formerly included in the subfamily Phytelephantoideae, but excludes the tribe Hyophorbeae. Finally, the subfamily Arecoideae was modified to exclude the tribe Caryoteae and to include the tribe Hyophorbeae.

Aim  The relative importance of current climate and past historical legacies is hotly debated. Here, we assess their role in determining the global distribution and diversity patterns of palms (Arecaceae), a widespread, species‐rich group of keystone ecological importance in tropical ecosystems. Location  Global. Methods  We assembled country‐level species lists world‐wide and compiled associated data on potential contemporary environmental drivers (current climate, habitat heterogeneity, area, and insularity), Quaternary glacial–interglacial climate change and major biogeographic regions to evaluate to what extent the global distribution and species richness patterns in palms reflect Quaternary climatic oscillations or regional effects reflecting pre‐Quaternary legacies. We also assessed for the first time if historical legacies differ between continents and islands, providing novel insights into determinants of insular species richness. Results  Palm species richness was significantly affected by Quaternary climate changes and further differed between biogeographic regions even when both current environmental conditions and Quaternary climate changes were accounted for. In contrast, global limits to the distribution of the palm family were best explained by current temperature while biogeographic regional differences were unimportant and Quaternary climate change caused only a small constraint. Historical legacies were weak on islands, with only a small regional effect and no effect of Quaternary climate changes. Main conclusions  Strong historical legacies supplement current environment as determinants of palm species richness. These primarily comprise pre‐Quaternary historical effects, reflected in low African species richness (possibly linked to pre‐Quaternary extinctions) and outstandingly high Neotropical and Indomalayan palm species richness (possibly linked to these regions' long‐term climatic suitability for palms). In contrast to species richness, the global distribution of the family range is largely in equilibrium with current climate. The small historical effects on islands are consistent with climatic buffering from their oceanic environment.

No abstract

All dead trees ≥ 20 cm DBH were counted in the first 6 mo of 1994 in 10 ha of wet lowland rain forest, in the Hoja Blanca Hills, western Ecuador. The trees were classified by their mode of death. Thirty-four per cent of the trees were uprooted, 35% had snapped, 15% had died standing and 16% were unclassified. Regression analyses found that slope position and whether an individual was a dicotyledonous tree or a palm (Iriartea deltoidea) to be both strongly related to the mode of death. Slope, altitude and the presence of buttresses also influenced the mode of tree death. Tree diameter, however, was not found to have any effect. Dicotyledonous trees predominantly uprooted and snapped while Iriartea mostly died standing and snapped. Uprooted and snapped trees were significantly spatially clumped while trees which died standing were distributed at random. It was concluded that the predominance of uprooting and snapping in Hoja Blanca mostly resulted from the steep terrain and high precipitation (c. 5000 mm y−1) as well as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) downpours. The implications of mode of death are discussed. The different modes created different types of gaps and could thereby potentially influence forest regeneration.

Visitors to palm inflorescences are attracted by rewards such as food, shelter and oviposition sites. The interaction between the palm and its visiting fauna represents a trade-off between the services provided by the potential pollinators and the antagonistic activities of other insect visitors. Evidence suggests that beetles constitute the most important group of pollinators in palms, followed by bees and flies. Occasional pollinators include mammals (e.g. bats and marsupials) and even crabs. Comparative studies of palm-pollinator interactions in closely related palm species document transitions in floral morphology, phenology and anatomy correlated with shifts in pollination vectors. Synecological studies show that asynchronous flowering and partitioning of pollinator guilds may be important regulators of gene flow between closely related sympatric taxa and potential drivers of speciation processes. Studies of larger plant-pollinator networks point out the importance of competition for pollinators between palms and other flowering plants and document how the insect communities in tropical forest canopies probably influence the reproductive success of palms. However, published studies have a strong geographical bias towards the South American region and a taxonomic bias towards the tribe Cocoseae. Future studies should try to correct this imbalance to provide a more representative picture of pollination mechanisms and their evolutionary implications across the entire family.

The complex distributions of morphological character states in the Indo-Pacific palm tribe Areceae (Arecaceae; Arecoideae) are potentially challenging for the delimitation of its genera. In the first exhaustive sampling of all 65 genera of the Areceae, we examined relationships of two of the tribe's most problematic genera, Heterospathe and Rhopaloblaste, using portions of the low-copy nuclear genes phosphoribulokinase (PRK) and RNA-polymerase II subunit B (RPB2). Both genera fell within a highly supported clade comprising all Areceae genera, but are clearly unrelated. Rhopaloblaste was strongly supported as monophyletic and is most closely related to Indian Ocean genera. Heterospathe was resolved with strong support within a clade of western Pacific genera, but with the monotypic Alsmithia nested within it. Ptychosperma micranthum, which has previously been included in both Heterospathe and Rhopaloblaste, is excluded from these and from Ptychosperma, supporting its recent placement in a new genus Dransfieldia. Morphological comparisons indicate that the crownshaft is putatively synapomorphic for the Areceae with numerous reversals within the clade and some independent origins elsewhere. The putative diagnostic characters of Heterospathe show high levels of homoplasy, and the genus can only be distinguished by a suite of characters, whereas Rhopaloblaste is more clearly defined. Our results have implications not only for the two genera in focus, but have also been influential for the new classification of the Areceae.

More than 200 scientific publications and Internet sources dealing with trade in palm products in north-western South America are reviewed. We focus on value chains, trade volumes, prices,

Circadian leaf movements are widely known in plants, but nocturnal movement of tree branches were only recently discovered by using terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), a high resolution three-dimensional surveying technique. TLS uses a pulsed laser emitted in a regular scan pattern for rapid measurement of distances to the targets, thus producing three dimensional point cloud models of sub-centimeter resolution and accuracy in a few minutes. Here, we aim to gain an overview of the variability of circadian movement of small trees across different taxonomic groups, growth forms and leaf anatomies. We surveyed a series of 18 full scans over a 12-h night period to measure nocturnal changes in shape simultaneously for an experimental setup of 22 plants representing different species. Resulting point clouds were evaluated by comparing changes in height percentiles of laser scanning points belonging to the canopy. Changes in crown shape were observed for all studied trees, but clearly distinguishable sleep movements are apparently rare. Ambient light conditions were continuously dark between sunset (7:30 p.m.) and sunrise (6:00 a.m.), but most changes in movement direction occurred during this period, thus most of the recorded changes in crown shape were probably not controlled by ambient light. The highest movement amplitudes, for periodic circadian movement around 2 cm were observed for Aesculus and Acer, compared to non-periodic continuous change in shape of 5 cm for Gleditschia and 2 cm for Fargesia. In several species we detected 2–4 h cycles of minor crown movement of 0.5–1 cm, which is close to the limit of our measurement accuracy. We present a conceptual framework for interpreting observed changes as a combination of circadian rhythm with a period close to 12 h, short-term oscillation repeated every 2–4 h, aperiodic continuous movement in one direction and measurement noise which we assume to be random. Observed movement patterns are interpreted within this framework, and connections with morphology and taxonomy are proposed. We confirm the existence of overnight “sleep” movement for some trees, but conclude that circadian movement is a variable phenomenon in plants, probably controlled by a complex combination of anatomical, physiological, and morphological factors.